UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

The policy applies to peer‐reviewed papers (except invited reviews) which acknowledge Research Council funding, submitted for publication between 1st April 2013 and 1st April 2022:

• Make your paper open access (see below for routes to OA)
• Acknowledge the source of funding
• Include a data accessibility statement
• Deposit papers into ORA
• Note: Extra page, colour or mandatory charges are ineligible for funding support and will not be covered

What is covered by the policy

"Peer-reviewed research articles, including reviews and conference papers, that are accepted for final publication in either a journal, conference proceeding with an International Standards Serial Number (ISSN), or publishing platform."

This policy covers items SUBMITTED after 01/04/2023. Short-form publications submitted before this date should consult the previous policy.

Short list of short-form outputs covered in the policy

Further criteria

Licence requirement

"UKRI requires the open access version of a research article to be published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.

There are two exceptions to this requirement:

• An Open Government Licence (OGL) can be used when a research article is subject to Crown Copyright.
• While a CC BY licence is appropriate in most cases, UKRI may permit, on a case-by-case basis, the use of a more restrictive Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence for the open access version of a research article."

Rights retention text

"For the article to be published under Route 2, submissions must include the following text in the funding acknowledgement section of the manuscript and any cover letter/note accompanying the submission:

‘For the purpose of open access, the author(s) has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (where permitted by UKRI, ‘Open Government Licence’ or ‘Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence’ may be stated instead) to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising’"

The University of Oxford advises authors to include this statement on all their submitted outputs for full coverage.

Embargo not permitted

"A publisher-requested delay or ‘embargo period’ between publication of the Version of Record and open access of the deposited version is not permitted."

Research council deposit requirements

"Biomedical research articles that acknowledge MRC or BBSRC funding are required to be archived in Europe PubMed Central, in accordance with MRC’s Additional Terms and Conditions and BBSRC’s Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice statement.

NERC Open Research Archive (NORA) is the joint repository of outputs produced by researchers at the British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the National Oceanography Centre. For either open access route, researchers based at these institutions should deposit a copy of their publication in NORA."

Paying for UKRI short-form publication

See: https://openaccess.web.ox.ac.uk/applying-block-grants

"The use of UKRI funds for publishing in a ‘hybrid’ journal that is not part of a transitional arrangement that meets the research sector’s requirements as set out by Jisc (UK digital, data and technology agency focused on tertiary education, research and innovation) is not permitted."

(All quotations taken from UKRI policy page on 12/06/2023)

What is covered by the policy

Applies to: Monographs, books, critical editions, volumes, catalogues

This policy covers items PUBLISHED before 01/01/2024. Long-form publications published after this date should consult the new policy

Paying for UKRI long-form publication

A researcher who is applying for a new UKRI grant and who wishes to request support for the payment of publication costs associated with the production of other types of research outputs that are not covered currently by the UKRI OA policy (e.g. publication costs for outputs such as monographs, books, critical editions, volumes and catalogues) should ask for these costs directly on their grant proposal(s).

This policy covers items PUBLISHED after 01/01/2024. Long-form publications published before this date should consult the previous policy.

Actions for researchers 

• If you want to publish with a Diamond publisher (no charges to authors or readers, full and immediate open access), explore options on our payments page.
• If you have a traditional publisher in mind, explore with them what UKRI-compliant open access options are available to you, including:
  • A 12-month embargo for making the accepted manuscript available via an open access repository.
  • A ‘gold’ route option with book processing charge.
• If you need funding for book or chapter charges, complete a Stage One form (see link above) to ensure you have access to funds when required.
• If the publisher asks for a payment to make the work immediately open access under a CC licence (‘gold’ open access) and the proposed charge is over £10,000 (incl. VAT) then we strongly recommend that you request a discount.

What is covered by the policy

"Monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024."

Seven year publication window

"In-scope outputs published seven or more years after the formal end of a UKRI-funded project, will not be eligible for UKRI open access funding. UKRI will not expect such outputs to be made open access. This threshold recognises that long-form outputs can be published many years after the end of a UKRI-funded project and over time the link between them will likely become less substantial."

Further criteria

Embargo allowance

"The final Version of Record or the Author’s Accepted Manuscript must be free to view and download via an online publication platform, publishers’ website, or institutional or subject repository within a maximum of 12 months of publication"

Licence requirement

"UKRI requires the open access version of long-form outputs to be published under a Creative Commons licence. A Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence is preferred to maximise opportunity for sharing and reuse but other Creative Commons licences are permitted. An Open Government Licence is also permitted when authors are subject to Crown Copyright."

Policy exemptions

Please note:

"Open access is a requirement for monographs, edited collections and book chapters that acknowledge our funding, therefore you should seek to publish open access wherever possible, prior to using an exemption."

Exemptions

Prior 01/01/2024 contract signing exemption

"[If you have] signed a contract with a publisher before 1 January 2024, which doesn’t enable open access in compliance with UKRI’s policy"

Sole publication venue exemption

"Where the only appropriate publisher, after liaison and consideration, is unable to offer an open access option that complies with UKRI’s policy."

Training grant publication exemption

"Monographs, book chapters and edited collections arising from UKRI training grants are exempt from UKRI’s open access requirements where the training grant is the only UKRI funding source acknowledged. Where possible, UKRI expects research organisations to support researchers to make such outputs open access."

Third party copyright 

"The open access version should include, where possible, any images, illustrations, tables and other supporting content"

Third party exemption

"UKRI’s licensing requirements do not apply to any materials included within a long-form output that are provided by third-party copyright holders. Academic books published under a CC BY, or other creative commons licence may include third-party materials (such as images, photographs, diagrams or maps) which are subject to a more restrictive licence or on an ‘All Rights Reserved’ basis. UKRI considers this approach compliant with its policy.

UKRI recognises that there may be some instances where permissions for reuse in an open access book cannot be obtained for all third-party images or other materials. Therefore, an exception to the policy may be applied when:

a. reuse permissions for third-party materials cannot be obtained and there is no suitable alternative option available to enable open access publication."

For more information on third party copyright please see UKRI's guidance documents.

Paying for third party copyright images

"Anticipated costs for clearing rights for third-party materials such as images that will be needed to publish your research. These should continue to be included in research funding applications. Some additional funding for these costs may also be available via the open access fund."

Paying for UKRI long-form publication

Stage one

"The research organisation registers the output(s) with UKRI for funding via an online form hosted by Citizen Space. A publishing contract does not need to have been signed at this stage.

UKRI will review the application and confirm if the output(s) will be eligible for funding. Successful applications will need to demonstrate a substantial link between the publication and UKRI research funding, as well as between the author and UKRI research funding."

Stage two

"The research organisation provides confirmation of publication to UKRI to enable the release of the funds. This stage will be completed via UKRI’s Funding Service."

Go to the 'paying for open access page for further details

Long form publication pricing caps

UKRI provides funding for the following open access models: Subscribe to open agreements, book processing charges, and book chapter processing charges. 

Permissible costs are:  

• Up to £10,000 (including VAT) for entire monographs and edited collections 

• Up to £1,000 (including VAT) for book chapters 

• Up to £6,000 for non-book processing charge models where one eligible UKRI output is published.

(Quotations last taken from UKRI policy pages on 16/11/2023)